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Abstract

Prof. E.A.C.L.E. Scheipe was born in Durban on 27 July 1924 and died in Cape Town on 12 October 1985. He studied at the University of Natal and at Oxford, England. He was awarded an M.Sc. (S. Afr.) for a thesis on the ecology of the Natal Drakensberg and a D. Phil. (Oxon.) for a thesis on the ecology of bryophytes. For a brief period he was Curator of the Fielding Herbarium, Oxford. In 1953 he was appointed Lecturer in Botany at the University of Cape Town, until in 1973 he was awarded a full professorship (ad hominem) and the title of Director of the Bolus Herbarium. Here he established a school of taxonomy and promoted 22 theses. His main fields of research were the taxonomy and phytogeography of Pteridophyta (especially African groups) and of Orchidaceae.He has 112 publications to his credit and collected over 7 000 numbers in various regions of Africa, in Europe and the Himalayas. He was a keen gardener and was active in several societies promoting horticulture, orchidology and nature conservation. He was a member of several scientific committees and was repeatedly honoured for his work.Three children were born from his marriage to Sybella Gray, also a botanist.